After the rain on Friday (above), the weather improve for a weekend finishing up a long drawn out engine work (plus a few other repairs) to Encore at the marina in Florida. The weather improved and was high 70s on… »

It has long been known that the color of urine can give doctors a insight into a patients health. For most in our day to day lives, it is a good way to monitor IF we are drinking enough water. Check out the info graphic… »

One of my favorite sailing authors Fatty Goodlander has a new book, Creative Anchoring: Everything about Anchors and Anchoring, and it is now available. With some travel ahead I opted to purchase and download the ebook… »

I wasted a couple hours on Thursday morning while “working” (cough, cough) from home and downloaded the Periscope app for iOS on the iPhone. To the novice “tech geek,” these live broadcasting social… »

News is slowly trickling or leaking out as to what may have happened to Germanwings Flight 9525 with 150 people on board in the mountain region of southern France. The lastest indication from a New York Times report is… »

Nationally the pay for babysitters is up in 2015 according to care.com as reported on CNBC this morning. When the reports indicate that wage growth is stagnent and inflation is at bay, they obviously don't have kids… »

My magazine reading has slipped in recent years and after 35 years of nary a missed issue of Cruising World magazine, I’m considering canceling my paper issue. Actually with all the information available on the… »

Early in the day I wondered why French President François Hollande was so quick to say that he expected no survivors in the crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 … after seeing the debris field photos in the afternoon, I… »

I spent a few minutes updating and cleaning up some of the tags on MyDesultoryBlog this past weekend … more of a maintenance thing than anything essential. Part of the reason was that I am still learning about… »

Last year about this time I had mentally decided that Brenda and I would be cruising the Bahamas aboard our sailboaat Encore in March 2015, but as “life happens” those dreams were not meant to be. As the… »

If you do plan a trip on the Amazon River, you’ve probably though about the wildlife … especially the ferocious insects, dangerous reptiles and famous fish … like the Piranha. They inhabit the neotropical… »

One of our resident and noisy Mallard ducks woke me up early this morning. He thinks it is time for us to uncover the pool so he can take his partner for a swim as in years past (Link one and two). It’s still early… »

Although cloud based apps aren’t for everyone, they have made inroads over the past few years. Googles’ online Docs, Sheets and Slides have been slowly improving and many other players have entered the foray… »

It has been 6 years and 200,000+ miles (time has zipped by) since I made an emergency battery replacement in my 2006 Honda Pilot while driving to Cleveland … and it happened again. I pulled off the highway and… »

I received a few long overdue updates items from our EAA chapter’s president for the interior pages of the EAA284 chapter website on Wednesday and so before forgetting I jumped right on it. We are continuing to keep… »

The future of transportation will likely include electric power even if automotive purist cringe at the thought of their beloved internal combustion engines losing ground. I’m as old school as the next car-lover, but… »

Ran across and old story about cellphones that are Doomed to be Collectables … then I wondered, “Where is my Palm Pre?” Back before the smartphone market was narrowed down to two choices — Apple or Android… »

It might just be the phase we’re going through at the moment, but Brenda and I sat back to listen to The Head and the Heart album and cut #8 song Let’s Be Still last night. Worth sharing and thinking about IF you… »

The past couple of months have been filled with caring for our parents as both my wife’s mom and my dad are facing common issues associated with aging. No matter how you deal with it, having health issues in your… »

The official death toll for Cyclone Pam stands at eight – but up to 44 are thought to be dead after the super storm ripped through several South Pacific island nations. The category 5 storm struck Vanuatu and has… »

It is the time of year I need to pay the $54.88 (ST $31 + Local $20 + service fee) to renew my Ohio registration fee for each vehicle and affix the tiny stickers to my aging metal license plate. The process in recent… »

In discussing FICA taxes the other day, I discovered just how much I didn’t know about one of the biggest taxes we pay throughout our entire working lives. I’m guessing most Americans are in my shoes? Now “let me… »

The Apple event earlier this week had be jumping to pick up an AppleTV with the price drop to $69 (opted for refurb)… if for nothing else, a device to plug into the TV on the boat and play video from my iPhone or… »

When regular leaded gasoline gets old, a thin layer of varnish coats the inside of fuel lines and the jets of the carburetor. This can plug or narrow jets that meter fuel into the carburetor and with cause the engine to… »

I ate a late lunch today and watched the live Apple product announcement events. The stock price moved up $3/sh to $129ish as the events were mentioned. Before the “main event Apple Watch” comments, Tim Cook and his… »

It’s great to see your kids making the most of their situation. In the case of Taylor who often feels “stuck” in North Dakota … especially in the winter … he continues to fine interesting and new things to do.… »

One of the reasons for adding the @Blogsyapp to my iPad is so I have an easy way to write and include the media items that I often post. So far, it is almost as easy as using my notebook computer and the “no… »

This months bill should be a interesting test for our Ting cellphone service. I will eventually add billing information to this post (below). With two iPhones on our account and a little more travel this past 4 week… »

Elegant, but simple solution to fitting and securing one of the new Mantus anchors or other modern anchor on the bow roller. Eventually I’d like to upsize our Bruce claw anchor (photo below) and will be looking at the… »

Really, I'm just looking to make a test post and include a photo to see how a new app called Blogsy does from the iPad. The feature-rich app offer an excellent platform to post to a variety of blogs and has nearly… »

Really just love the above camera angle of the Elio … a new micro-car company making its public relation rounds and aggressively taking pre-orders. I’ve mentioned Elio previously and am anxious to see, drive and OWN… »

The Overdrive app on my iPad is one of my favorite reading and “listening” apps on any of my devices (previously commented). It is super for those who would love to spend more time going to the public libraries but… »

A debate over controlling free and open access to the “pipes of the Internet” is not as simple (or probably as inexpensive) as it sounds. While the Federal Communications Commission considered views for and against… »

Ever since getting my Keurig Coffeemaker back in 2009, I’ve used it nearly everyday … and multiple times a day at that. It makes making single cups of coffee easier and keeps my coffee drink habit to cups rather… »

With oil prices down and the stock market in rally mode (particularly these top 5 Nasdaq stocks), it might be time to nibble on a few of TheStreet Ratings best Oil and Gas companies (below). I’ve been watching a… »

While getting sidetracked from the Whale Gusher Mk3 pump rebuild (soaking and cleaning), I started working on Encore’s hatch screen idea since it will soon be bug season on the sailboat in Florida. I’ve been… »

Joey Legano took the win in 2015’s NASCAR’s season opening race, the Daytona 500, with an exciting finish with the yellow flag waving due to a wreck in the rear of the field. The racers bunched for a restart… »

As predicted, we pick up our share of snow in the Cincinnati area on Saturday. I was hoping to make it through the winter without having to put the chains and snowblower on the old John Deere, but realized Friday… »

CNBC interviewed Gov. Scott Walker on Thursday morning (video below) as America is beginning to talk and take note of him as he makes the media rounds. It is early, but for Walker getting a little better better name… »

Please Come To Boston (Single) (MP3) Dave Loggins – 1974 Not that Dave Loggins music is going to warm up those of us suffering in the deep freeze and snow, but I did find the polar bear on a melting iceberg… »

I made the big 99 cent plunge a couple months ago in paying for more Apple iCloud space primarily to keep data on my iPhone and iPad safely backed up (although it is easy enough to do with and iTunes Lightening to USB… »

As mentioned previously, I returned my “out of production” (Europe only) Victorinox SwissFlame knife in for warranty service, and although they could not repair it, they honored the lifetime warranty. Not only did… »